Are people waking up to the reality of climate change and looking to work towards leading a more sustainable life? Apparently people living in the Netherlands are! According to NOS, the Dutch Railways saw a growth of 13% with four million travelers going abroad from here.
According to a spokesperson from the Dutch Ski Association, they find that a lot of people going to skiing destinations want to take the train for environmental reasons. They said to NOS, “On our online forum we see that there are more and more questions about sustainability.”
Growth for destinations close by and far away
Although the most growth (22%) was seen for people wanting to take the train to closer destinations (like hopping on over to Belgium for that day trip).
There was also growth in destinations more than 700 km. “In absolute numbers, with tens of thousands of train passengers per year, it may remain modest,” says Heike Luiten, director of NS International, “yet the growth is impressive. Our main focus remains to get up to 700 kilometers from the plane on the train.”
And it seems like they’re being sort of successful. They want to make these destinations as accessible as possible. They said to RTL Nieuws that there are 3200 places they want to be covered.
With the direct trains from Amsterdam to London, a night train to Vienna, Munich, Innsbrück, and even Disneyland Paris, they seem to be really ramping it up.
So are you taking the train more often now for environmental reasons? What do you make of this? Let us know in the comments below!
